The operative term is "collaborative"
And l'il Georgie knows it. That's why he said "there is a relationship."
There was "a relationship" between pre-invasion Iraq and the USofA. But it wasn't collaborative either. Shall we shock and awe ourselves?
Quote of note:
With its historic access to government secrets, the panel was able to shed new light on old accountings, demonstrating, for example, that Mr. Bush himself, in the weeks before the attack, had received more detailed warnings about Al Qaeda's intentions than the White House had acknowledged.
…and another:
In the studies, Mr. Bush in particular has come off as less certain and decisive than he has portrayed himself.
Questioning Nearly Every Aspect of the Responses to Sept. 11
By DOUGLAS JEHL
WASHINGTON, June 17 - For most of 2002, President Bush argued that a commission created to look into the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks would only distract from the post-Sept. 11 war on terrorism.
Now, in 17 preliminary staff reports, that panel has called into question nearly every aspect of the administration's response to terror, including the idea that Iraq and Al Qaeda were somehow the same foe.
Far from a bolt from the blue, the commission has demonstrated over the last 19 months that the Sept. 11 attacks were foreseen, at least in general terms, and might well have been prevented, had it not been for misjudgments, mistakes and glitches, some within the White House.
In the face of those findings, Mr. Bush stood firm, disputing the particular finding in a staff report that there was no "collaborative relationship" between Saddam Hussein and the terrorist organization. "There was a relationship between Iraq and Al Qaeda," Mr. Bush declared.
So now there's no doubt about the reason the White House resisted the very creation of the 9/11 Commission and then fought mightily to restrict its operation. No doubt of the reason for harping on the lack of absolute specificity.
And the Bushista response?
At a briefing, a senior White House official sought again to turn away attention from the past. "The real issue is how do we move forward," the official said. "We've made a lot of changes since Sept. 11, because this country was simply not on war footing at the time of the attacks."
Moving forward, we have to eliminate the errors we've made. That is something the current administration has yet to do.
Between this, the exposure of a CIA operative for political reasons, the number of flat out lies and denials that have come to light, the actual war crime admitted to by Rumsfeld and the ideological domination of the administration by an ideologically bankrupt philosophy, the only reason for holding back on impeachment proceedings is that voting the Bushistas out will be faster.
